


faded as he touched my trembling hand

by smallredboy



Category: House M.D.
Genre: Blood Loss, Canon What Canon, Hospitalization, Love Confessions, M/M, Medical Inaccuracies, Stabbing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-28
Updated: 2019-09-28
Packaged: 2020-10-30 03:55:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 708
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20808113
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smallredboy/pseuds/smallredboy
Summary: Chase confesses to House while delirious and bleeding.





	faded as he touched my trembling hand

**Author's Note:**

> for hc-bingo with the square 'blood loss', bad things happen bingo with the square 'stabbing', and 15woes for the your choice prompt, which i used for 'hospitals'.
> 
> enjoy!

Chase gasps as the scalpel slides off his wound; he trips down onto the floor, slides down to his knees as he shakes, too shocked to even manage a reply, something. He looks up, at how House is there, sort of staring at him, not saying a thing. He’s bleeding too much, too fast and everything’s sort of blurry.

It seems like a second, a blink of an eye— from one moment to another, he’s on a gurney, being wheeled into somewhere to be taken care of. House is trailing behind the nurses, the yells to take care of this all. He doesn't know what’s going on— one moment he was talking with the patient and the next she was going crazy, sticking the scalpel in him.

“House,” he gasps out, delirious with fear, “please don’t leave.”

House frowns at him as he makes his way closer to him, grabs his arm. “I’m not leaving, wombat. I’m right here. You’ll be fine.”

What if he’s not? What if he’s not fine? Then House won’t ever know that—

“I love you,” he chokes out, the words forcing themselves out of his mouth. “Please don’t leave.”

The nurses don’t stop their way to the hospital room, but they very nearly do, the shock coming and going rapidly. He sobs, clings onto House desperately, even as everything goes faster than a man with a limp. He needs him to stay. After a while, the gurney is motionless, and everything goes black.

***

“Hey,” House says.

Chase opens his eyes and lets out a quiet noise of desperation. “Hey,” he breathes out.

House is sitting next to him, a book on his lap, knuckles whitening around the armrest of the small, one-person seat. He looks mildly uncomfortable in it. The silence drags on forever, and they’re just staring at each other like they’ve never met anyone before. Like they’re the first person they’ve ever seen. That’s how it feels to be around House sometimes.

“Do you remember what you said?” 

He stays silent for several seconds. “Yeah. I do.”

House forces in a smile. “Delirium can make you say the weirdest thing, doesn’t it?” he says, trying to sound like he’s joking.

“Delirium doesn’t make one lie,” he shoots back.

He grimaces a little. “It can make one say things one didn’t mean.”

“House,” he says. “If you don’t want to fuck me, that’s okay with me.” Because, a part of him is sure House is incapable of love. “You don’t have to run circles around the issue. I’m not going to pretend I said it just because I was losing blood at an alarming rate.”

House clasps his hands together. “Why?” he asks.

“Why?” he echoes, turning to get a better look at him. “Why what? Why do I—?”

“Yes,” House intercepts. “Why do you love me, so to speak.”

“Ah.” Chase moves a little, his stitches almost complaining, so he goes still. “Well, you’re smart, and you’re hot, and—”

“And I’m older?” he says, tilting his head, “because I’m  _ sure  _ you’re into that.”

“Could you stop deflecting?” Chase snaps.

House’s brows raise, but he doesn’t reply, so Chase continues— “Stop deflecting. Just tell me if you— like me— or not. If not, I can resign if you want me to, I’ll leave this damn hospital if it’ll make your employee’s years-long love for you easier to ignore. Just say something and stop asking questions.”

House stares at him like he’s grown a second head before he smiles. “Damn, didn’t know you had a dominant side to you,” he teases. Chase opens his mouth, so he says, “no-no, I’m not done, I’m done deflecting, I just. You’ve been my employee for, what? Nine years? And we’ve just been sort of staring at each other for all of that time. I don’t know if you noticed, but I always wanted a piece of you. And then it became more than a piece of you.”

“So you wanna fuck me?” he drawls out.

“I’ll get the flowers when you’re out of here,” House shoots back, a docile smile on his lips.

Chase chuckles. He can’t quite move, but if it was for him, he’d lean up and kiss House right now. “I’ll take that.”


End file.
